General Culture:

Easily grown in average, medium moisture soils in part shade to full shade. Prefers humusy, organically rich, moisture retentive soils. Foliage tends to scorch and otherwise depreciate if soils are allowed to dry out. A slow-to-establish plant.

Noteworthy Characteristics:

‘Black Negligee’ is a purple-leaved bugbane that typically grows to 4-5’ tall. It is perhaps best noted for its deeply-cut, dark purplish-black leaves on branched, dark stems. Foliage has a lacy effect, hence the cultivar name, and makes an effective accent throughout the growing season. Small, numerous, creamy white (with a purple tinge), strongly fragrant flowers appear in late summer to early fall in long, bottlebrush-like, terminal racemes resembling fluffy spires (to 24” long). Flowering racemes appear on upright, wiry stems. Synonymous with and formerly known as Cimicifuga ‘Black Negligee’. All plants in the genus Cimicifuga have recently been transferred to the genus Actaea. The common name of bugbane is in reference to the odoriferous insect repellant properties attributed to most plants in the genus. A. simplex plants are also sometimes commonly called cohosh which comes from an Algonquin word meaning rough in reference to the appearance of plant rhizomes. Plants in the Atropurpurea Group typically have purple to bronze tinted foliage.